Even though most of you have probably heard of this already, or have been feeling this might happen for some time, US and UA announced they'd begun talks on canceling the $4.3 billion dollar deal on Monday. Things have aparently been going south since April, when the two airlines had realized that this would not work. The newspaper here in Pgh. said that the main turn-off was "the costs associated with satisfying regulators' antitrust concerns" ; i'm clueless as to what that means, though. IT appears as though it was a 50/50 type of thing, since there are both benefits and losses to both, or at least US. First off, had the merger gone through, prices would have gone up and certain aircraft would probably have had to been sold off. Also I wouldn't be surprised if some would have lost their jobs, esp. here at the PIT hub. UA insists that it would have made PIT a UA hub, and would have built a needed maintenance facility for (I believe) US's new Airbus widebodies. Now that the merger is off, it is unlikely PIT will get it because as it is the airport is still paying off debts. This would have just made flying in and out of here more expensive.

Again from the newspaper, US now has three likely options: sell the airline piece-by-piece, strike a deal with another airline, or continue on on its own.

Also another big loss (in my opinion) was how UA would've brought more international flights to PIT, which is now only connected to Toronto, London, Paris, Frankfurt, and Montreal. (Most of US's intl. flights leave out of PHL)

So what do you think??? Would the merger have worked out in other conditions? Would it have been more benificial for UA or US, and in what ways??? Do you really think UA would've made PIT a hub? And, more importantly, how long will US last? It hasn't hired a pilot in months and has been posting losses for the last three quarters. I'm betting that by 2010 it will be either a fraction of what it is now or have been sold out to numerous companies. Sad since it has only had its Airbus A330's for a short while. It would be sad to see these few (new) services go!!